


Scott's Wedding

by ratonzita



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: BAMF Stiles, Eternal Sterek, F/M, Fluff, Great friends to lovers, Magic Stiles, Sexual Tension, Wedding, Wolf Derek, a bit of crack, future smut, girl stiles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2018-11-02 16:03:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10947939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratonzita/pseuds/ratonzita
Summary: It hadn't happened straight after high-school, but five years later, Scott was finally marrying Kira.





	1. The bachelor party

It hadn’t happened straight after high school. Since Scott met Allison Stiles thought he’d be getting married as soon as possible. But Allison died, leaving a huge gaping wound on Scott that usually happened when first loves fall apart (and they _had_ fallen apart, but they didn’t stop loving each other). However, Scott met Kira and it was beautiful. Yes, Allison had hit Scott like a truck, but with Kira it was subtle; the sweet shyness of Kira took Scott under by millimeters and seconds. Slowly, Kira made Scott fall in love without him noticing.

And now, it had been five years since high school. Stiles was coming down to Beacon Hills from her master’s degree at Berkeley because Scott was _finally_ marrying Kira, after two whole years of indecision that Stiles had to listen to every single day. And she perfectly understood Scott’s worries, except the one where Kira said no.

Stiles had worked her ass off the whole month to have the week of Scott’s and Kira’s wedding free. She had even managed to convince her thesis supervisor to let her write it all in Beacon Hills, so she was actually not coming down just for the wedding, but to stay until she finished it, along with some online classes, because she just needed to be back home. And reasons. That did not, in any way, involved being more focus and relaxed around Derek. Nope.

She’d already been back for three days and hadn’t had the time to say hello to everyone. Two days Lydia exploited her with the last wedding details, as she was organizing it and needed Stiles to double check every single thing, to plan Scott’s bachelor party because she was the best man, and to pick up her dress and shoes. And no, she wasn’t allowed to see what she was wearing until the very day. The third day she had needed it to sleep.

That day was Scott’s bachelor party at her place. She would see him, see Derek. As usual, she was a mess of nerves, stress, anxiety, and excitement before seeing him for reasons like being capable to hide her undying love in order not to ruin their awesome friendship and pack dynamics. She shook her head. Today wasn’t about her or Derek, thouh; it was about Scott. Her Scotty was getting married and today was the last day, or the very least in a while, for him to get thrashed and play video games all day long.

Stiles invited all men in the pack. That meant Isaac, Liam, Derek, Deaton, Mason, Corey, Parrish, her dad, Chris, Mr. Yukimura and herself. She’d be ordering the greasiest pizzas ever and had tons of beers, the exact amount of wolfsbane needed to pour in each one, and altered tequila. She also had normal alcohol for the humans and chimeras. There were also bunches of candy, chocolate, and chips. She had set up her Xbox, borrowed Mason’s Wii-U, and had prepared the most embarrassing games like Tell-A-Scott-Story and Give-Scott-Advice. She was also going to pester him about the honeymoon. Oh yeah. Isaac was totally going to help on that one.

She was finishing dressing (some jeans, a geek t-shirt, a plaid, and barefoot, with her head on a ponytail) when they arrived. His dad opened the door, while Stiles ran down the stairs and jumped onto Scott’s back, putting him in a headlock and wilding up his hair.

“Are you ready to get this party started, Scotty my bro?”

Scott grinned and pinched her legs, making her squeak and release him. “Yeah.”

For almost four hours they played video games, the dads and Deaton included (though she couldn’t tell if the vet was affected by the alcohol and her father was happier being referee than actually playing as he was really bad). They switched controls when someone lost and that someone had to take a tequila shot. Stiles could confidently say that the wolves were close to being drunk, except Derek, as there wasn’t much difference in his attitude and wasn’t losing much.

Stiles, undefeated so far, gave up her control to Mason down a chorus of shotshotshotshot and a desperate Liam demanding pizza with puppy eyes. She didn’t even lose! They were just really hungry (the chips had already been devoured. Who knew alcohol made the supernatural hungry?) and as she was in charge there she had to order the food and that meant leaving the control, which according to the law, aka her father, meant a shot of tequila.

“When I come back, you’re all having a shot! And Scott’s having extras for every person in this room!”

“Stiles that’s unfair!” whined Scott a little slurred.

“Do you see me caring about fairness?” she hissed and went to the kitchen. Derek followed after her.

“How much more alcohol and wolfsbane do you have?”

Stiles smirked. “More than enough to knock everyone out, but I don’t see you tipsy at all,” she frowned.

Derek shrugged, trying to hide a smile. “I guess I’m good at games.”

“Of course you are,” Stiles pushed him a bit and started dialing. “I taught you! You were really bad, though, the first couple of times we played, as bad as Parrish right now.” She giggled.

He pocked her side and leaned against the counter while she ordered twenty Meat Lovers still giggling. She bit her lips and twisted the cord. It was nice that he accompanied her, but he was staring and making her nervous, maybe he _was_ buzzed. She breathed deeply and thanked the pizza guy.

“How are you paying for all this?”

“I started saving since Scott told me he was planning to propose. I had two years, so I have everything pretty covered.” She smiled brightly. “Come on. Time to switch the game.”

“Oh, thank god,” sighed Parrish throwing back another shot.

“I prefer to go by Stiles, dearest hellhound.” Isaac snorted and fell off the couch. “The next one is relatively easy. No way to lose.” The supernaturals gulped when they heard the skip in her heartbeat. She smirked. “So, now that everybody is fairly relaxed and alcohol supplied… each of us is going to give Scott an advice. _But_ the rest of us are going to judge if it’s a good one or a bad one. If it’s good, the advisor and Scott drink, but Scott doubles because he's grateful.”

Scott groaned into his hand. “Are you trying to get me drunk?”

Stiles gasped. “Me? I’m incapable of such atrocity! _Who_ do you take me for?” Scott glared amused. The rest snorted loudly. She cleared her voice. “If it’s a bad one, well, well, well, the poor advisor not only has to finish up the drink in hand but also gets a punishment decided by Scott and his best men, meaning Isaac and me. And it can be _anything_. If the advisor decides not to do it, he has to take a shot and someone else will spin him and shake his head for a whole minute.” She let that information sink in before continuing. “Ok. Scott will pick the first person, then that person picks the next and so on. Scotty? Who first?”

Scott looked at every face in the Stilinski living room and settled on one. “Corey.”

Corey squeaked. “Me? Okay, um…”

“Oh, did I mention? You have thirty seconds.”

“W-what? But you didn’t say before!”

“Now it’s twenty and lowing.”

“Ten.” Isaac reminded.

“Okay. Okay.”

“Five,” Liam smirked.

“Anal!” Everybody choked on their drinks. “You should do anal!”

“We have to give sex advice?” Parrish asked with big eyes. Like Stiles didn’t know every dirty thing he did with Lydia; she liked to share details.

“Well,” said Deaton, “sex advice is advice.”

“Oh my god,” whispered both Liam and Isaac. Stiles turned to look at Derek trying to confer the very serious and unreal idea of Deaton giving sex advice, then she turned horrified and imagined her _dad_ giving it. She shuddered and Derek winced for her.

“So,” she cleared her voice and spook the images away, “do we think it good or bad?”

“Well, it would definitely spice things up in the bedroom, so good,” said Chris. Stiles could perfectly well imagine him smoking a cigarette with that pleased and thoughtful expression. If she thought it an after-sex cigarette, only her head would know.

“All in favor of good, raise drinks.” Everybody did. Mr. Yukimura and Scott bright red. “Drink up then, Corey and Scott.”

While Scott drank his second shot, Corey announced the next person. “Parrish.”

Jordan turned to Scott and, with a slight tremor in his voice, he said, “Never, no matter what, forget the details or special days. Ever.” Scott alone served their drinks on that one. “Liam.”

“Ok. So, don’t forget that even if you’re the alpha, she’s your kitsune wife: she’s not only very capable of taking care of herself, but also allowed to challenge you and guide you.”

Stiles nodded along, and while Isaac poured their drinks, she approached Derek. “So, if I’ve done that his whole life, does that mean we’re already married?” she asked very quietly, earning a snort from Derek. She turned to him, he was shaking his head with a small smile on his face. She then thought about all the times she’d pushed and yelled and advised and outright challenged Derek; she blushed, turned again and continued talking to make those thoughts go away. “Because that would be weird. We’re brother and sister!”

“Siblings are made for that banter and to make you show the best side of yourself. Loved ones often do that.” There was a sparkle in his eyes sent Stiles way that she missed as Liam announced the sheriff was next.

“Never go a day without telling her you love her.” Everybody drank to that. “Stiles.”

She clapped trying to dissipate the mood. “Oh, lord. So many things on my list, Scotty.” Scott only opened his big, puppy eyes, scared of what she might say. She smiled, happy that he still feared her mind. “But I can only say one. Don’t worry I’ll still send you the complete ten-pages-long list.” She opened her mouth to give her advice. It was something thoughtful and deep. Yet the doorbell rang in that moment. She turned to the door. “Is that the pizza?”

Derek nodded. “I’ll get it.”

“No, no. You’re a guest today. I’m the host. I’ll get it.”

“Your thirty seconds are coming up, Stiles,” reminded Isaac.

The advice she had in mind had fled with the doorbell.

“Shit. I mean, shirt, dad, shirt.” The sheriff let his eyes go upwards. That was his child. “Um, oral! _So_ important dude. I keep telling you and reminding you. If you expect a blowjob, you have to give love to Lady Clit.” She stood up as the doorbell rang again and noticed her dad’s huge eyes and raised eyebrows. “Not that I know _anything_ about that dad! Pizza’s calling. Mr. Yukimura’s next!”

She fled the room as Isaac threw the whole bottle into Scott’s face because he also knew how important it was. Cora herself taught him that. Stiles was checking herself for the money as she opened the door and was received with a whistle.

“Need some help with that?” said the pizza guy openly staring at her hands on her boobs.

“No.” She took out the money and scowled. “Do you even know who this house belongs to and who you are talking to, kid?”

“Don’t know. To the hottie in front of me who’ll give me her number.”

“Dude. Not smooth at all, not even close to _suave_. Also, this is the sheriff’s house,” the guy’s eyes opened with recognition. “And I am the sheriff’s daughter, your underage brain should at least know that. Are those my twenty pizzas?”

“Yup. Need help eating them all? And more?”

“Really? Did my words not have any meaning at all to you? A no is a no. Also, I’m not alone.”

“Wow, room for one more?”

She gaped. Was this guy serious? She thanked god her dad didn’t have werewolf hearing.

“Just give me my pizzas already.”

She thrust the money towards him. The guy suddenly gulped and his eyes went wide. Good, she thought. Now her message had come across. She turned around to yell for some supernatural help but nearly destroyed her nose against Derek’s chest. He was the reason the guy was now trembling in fear. Not her. Well, she’ll take it as Derek’s glare was really powerful against regular humans. So was the scowling back up of Liam and a very recognizable deputy Parrish.

“Here’re your pizzas, ma’am. I’ll bring up the rest.”

Only because there were three men behind her would the guy leave her alone. She felt a little like throwing up in her mouth for the guy’s way of thinking, but slightly grateful towards Derek, Liam, and Parrish. Otherwise, she would have just punched him.

“We’ll help you, kid,” said Parrish using his deputy voice, even though he was slurring a bit.

Stiles wanted to laugh at the guy’s effusive nodding and spring, but then she turned to a still glaring Derek.

“Hey,” she placed a hand on his bicep, “it’s alright. I was about to quiet him with my fist. It was good you guys showed your furry faces.”

“He should have taken the hint from you.”

“Well, guys are dumb. No offense.” She patted him. Derek snorted.

“Non taken.”

“Scott didn’t hear my encounter just now, right? I don’t want this to ruin it for him.”

“No, he’s still crying and cringing his heart out with Mr. Yukimura and pregnancy and babies. I think just for that he’ll finish the rest of the alcohol on his own.”

Stiles chuckled. Liam and Parrish returned. Stiles extended her hand for the change.

“Piece of advice? Don’t play those lines ever again.”

“Yes, ma’am. Sorry for bothering you and your boyfriend and friends.”

She frowned. “I don’t have a boyfriend. And don’t ma’am me, I’m only 24, gee.”

“Does that mean then that-?”

“Nope. Not a chance.” She closed the door on his face. “Jesus, kids these days.” Derek’s nostrils kept flaring. “Let’s go back. We come bearing food!” She yelled as she entered the room once more and laughed out loud at a sobbing Scott being comforted by an equally sobbing Mr. Yukimura, next to the rest of a very uncomfortable party.

Scott scrambled upwards to Stiles. “St’les! St’les! Kitsun’ pregnant wom’n are terrifyin’, also the b’bies. Stiles, what’m I gonna do with the b’bies!”

“Hey, hey, hey. Slow down, bro. We’ll cross that bridge when it comes. And you’ll be an incredible father. And I’ll research everything you’ll need, ‘kay? Don’t worry about it now. I have a whole pizza just for you. Maybe two if you behave.”

If Scott had ears on top of his head, they would have perked up at the sound of pizza. Stiles rolled her eyes and went for some plates, for those civilized people in the room, like her dad, that didn’t eat straight out of the box.

When she came back, she was surprised the pizzas were still there. She smiled.

“Okay, so, as Mr. Yukimura used quite a bit of time for his advice. We’ll switch the game for now, while we eat. It’s time for Tell-A-Scott-Story! It can be about anything, preferably embarrassing, but just as loving. Things that make you say ‘That’s so Scott’, ‘kay? I’ll start.” She smirked at Scott’s petrified figure with a pizza half-way to his mouth. “Something innocent. Don’t worry, gee. I’m not terrible, not entirely.” She winked. Derek snorted. “So we were about, what? Seven? when Scott wasn’t sure if he was into girls or boys.”

“Stiles no! You swore!”

“Relax. It’s not the second one.” She rolled her eyes. “And I crossed a finger.” She shrugged. “Anyway, we were seven, maybe. I was completely sure I didn’t like boys because Jacksons exist in this world.”

“Right up until D-” She slapped a hand over Scott’s face, Liam winced at the strength of it.

“As I was saying, Scotty wanted to know if he liked girls or boys as he didn’t find neither cute. We decided to kiss each other as a trial and find a willing boy to help him out. But after our little trial, we decided to erase the moment by eating soap, because _ew_. We ended up with so much soap in our mouths, we kept burping little bubbles for the next whole day! Scott sniffled it out _so_ hard, there’s still a stain on the back of his door to this day. As a bonus, Scott thought he was gay for three whole years!”

Everyone laughed. The sheriff shook his head half fond and half exasperated.

“Me next,” said Isaac. “We were at the lockers when I heard Jackson towering over Scott. He kept asking Scott where did he get his juice, obviously talking about steroids as Scott’s newly werewolf transformation worked miracles for his lacrosse. But poor, oblivious Scott kept saying his mom did all the groceries!”

Everyone laughed really hard. Even more so when Scott realized for the first-time what Jackson had been talking about.

“I remember when Scott bit me,” said Liam. “Stiles looked so frustrated with Scott’s explanation about how the bite was a gift and because of it now we were brothers.” Derek chocked on his beer while Scott groaned wanting to be swallowed by the couch. “It was really confusing and honestly creepy. But then bad stuff started happening, and Mason was in trouble. Scott looked at me and promised me it was all going to be good. That we’d survive and save everyone. And even when we didn’t know a thing, he tried everything and succeeded.”

Liam raised his glass in thanks and the rest joined in.

“For Scott,” said Isaac.

“Our True Alpha with a hero complex and the support to make it happen,” said Chris.

Scott seemed about to cry. Stiles nudged him and smiled.

“For the best bro anyone could ever have,” she said.

They all drank gladly. The sheriff cleared his voice then, trying to clear the serious moment.

“Since they first met in kindergarten, Stiles has been getting both of them in trouble. Making pranks, jumping from roofs pretending to fly, even stealing a van to lock Jackson up. You name it and they’ve done it.” Parrish was nodding along very serious while Scott and Stiles not so discreetly bumped fists. “However, even when we all knew it was Stiles’ brain causing riots, don’t even try to deny it kiddo, Scott refused to let her suffer the punishments alone. He always had her back when it mattered.”

“And because of it,” Stiles continued, “even when he was an A-grade dick during his first full moon and a bit of a jerk when it came to choosing between friends or girlfriend in the direst situations, I still had his back.”

“I wasn’t that much of an ass.”

Stiles raised an eyebrow. “Derek?”

“A really big asshole. We almost died like, what, three or four times? But no hard feelings, you were adjusting and Stiles was also an asshole.” Derek shrugged.

“But I’m always an asshole, Scotty’s rainbows.” Even the sheriff nodded at that.

“That is true,” Deaton confirmed. “He was really sad when he turned and Mr. Skittles, our oldest cat at the vet, hissed at him and refused to be petted by him.”

Scott pouted. “We were besties.”

Stiles couldn’t hold in the laughter. Everyone was confused. “Sorry. It’s just- Scott spent like four hours sitting in front of Mr. Skittles trying to explain that they could still be friends even when he was now a threatening predator and that he understood, but couldn’t Mr. Skittles also understand and appreciate their memories together and see past the differences?”

“Such a Scott move,” said Chris smiling.

“Right?!” pointed out Stiles with her beer. “Oh man, I think I have a video of that somewhere.” Stiles then noticed that most of the pizza was gone, that the party was in a mellow mood and she still had tons of alcohol. She stood up with a clap. “Okay! Time for shots and more video games!”

Scott sighed already resigned while the rest hooted their excitement. The sheriff, Deaton, Mr. Yukimura and Chris stood up making excuses in order to escape. Stuff like early shifts, waiting wives, a dog’s surgery and some guns to deal away. Stiles let the cowards go but stopped Parrish from attempting the same move.

“Well, with the old ones gone. It’s time to party harder!” She went to the kitchen to grab the tequila. “Ok, Scotty. You’re taking a shot for each pack member, present and past. Then, the rest is drinking the time you’ve been an Alpha.”

“Do you want to kill us all with alcohol?” Isaac groaned.

“Nah, just to get you all shitfaced,” Stiles petted Isaac’s head. “So, as I’m too lazy to serve you each shot, you’ll drink them straight from the bottle, Scotty boy. Everybody, let’s count! How many have we been? And I’m counting pack since Derek became Alpha because you were already a werewolf. The lost ones count double.”

“31,” frowned Derek. “Lost ones included.” He took a big gulp of his drink after that.

“Well, well, will you look at that? Scott, you get 31 seconds drinking from the bottle, while the rest of us enjoy a mere 8.” Scott whined loudly. “Shush and open up, that’s not a sound worthy of our Alpha.”

Scott grumbled and opened his mouth. Stiles poured from ten to ten, otherwise, he would choke. After she was done, Isaac and Liam roughly shook his head.

“Nicely done!” Scott ended up passing out straightly. “Well, he’s out. But that doesn’t mean we’re done with this party. Parrish, don’t run!” Corey and Derek grabbed him. “You’re first.”

“I didn’t even know the supernatural existed!”

“Doesn’t matter, sweetie. Open up.”

“You’re evil.”

She smirked. “Just a little.”

Everybody else was willing to drink up their share. When it was Derek’s turn, he never stopped looking at her. She did the same to him.

“Okay. Mason, put on Mario Kart. Rules remain the same.”

Even though they were still having fun and drinking by the end of each race, some even during (Mason and Liam), Scott’s snores helped quiet down the party. However, if Stiles was pretty wasted bordering on drunk who couldn’t see straight, the others were way worse. Fortunately, she had warned them all of the estates they’d leave. Nobody had brought a car.

They left one by one. Liam helped Isaac taking Scott home. Derek helped her clean between giggles, shoves and drunken stupor. In a dreary move that almost sent Stiles’ head against the kitchen counter, Derek pulled her into his arms and distractedly nuzzled her cheek. With a deep breath, he let her upright herself laughing.

“I probably stink of alcohol!”

“All your house does. Even your dad snoring upstairs.” She smiled at the roof. “Are you gonna be okay for tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” she shoved him out the door. “I haven’t got a hangover in years. Try not to fall into a ditch on your way home!”

He laughed. “It happened one time!”

“It’s fun to remember,” she leaned against the door and smiled.

They made quite the picture. Staring into each other’s eyes, both blushing slightly from their buzz. Derek walked away backward as far as he could. Stiles kept on looking at him until he turned a corner and she couldn’t see him anymore.

She sighed and bit her lip.

It was good to be home.


	2. The bachelorette party

The next day was Kira’s bachelorette party at Derek’s old loft (now home to Cora and Malia) because he was maid of honor and Kira’s best friend. However, the party itself was in charge of both Derek and Lydia vetoing lots of Malia’s wild ideas. Stiles was one of the first ones to arrive even with her horrible hangover. She jinxed it the night before. The loft was unrecognizable. In pale orange undertones, it looked illuminated by a sunset.

“Hi, Stiles!” yelled Malia excitedly taking away the present in her hand and put it on its designated table. Stiles winced.

“Urgh, no yelling, please.”

“Hungover?” Derek smirked but gave her a glass of water.

Stiles glared at him without any heat. “I hate werewolf healing.”

Derek chuckled and put a hand on her arm to take away her headache. She sighed gratefully. “No, you don’t.”

“Drink this,” Lydia gave her a weird red and purple looking drink. “And don’t spit it out.”

Derek wrinkled his nose. Stiles knew it had to smell awful. It looked awful. She held her breath and emptied it as fast as she could. Her stomach gave a flip, but it settled down fast. She exhaled and finished her water.

“Tell me I didn’t just drink witchcraft.”

Lydia rolled her eyes. “It’s my own hangover recipe. You’ll be perfect in a couple of minutes.” She hit Stiles’ head. “Moron.”

“Hey!”

Slowly the women of the pack trickled in. Melissa came hand in hand with Mrs. Yukimura and Kira. A couple of minutes later came Hayden, followed by Braeden. Stiles’ stomach made another flip at her sight. It had been a shithole one-night stand of Derek; nothing more. She bit the inside of her cheek and blamed her hangover.

“It hasn’t worked?” asked Derek concerned. Her cheeks pinked embarrassed.

“Um, any minute now. Lydia’s not to be doubted.”

He nodded. “Okay.” He glanced at Lydia, getting the go ahead. “Let’s start. Lydia and I prepared some games. Entirely different from what Stiles made Scott go through last night.”

Kira laughed. “Thank you! Oh my god, Stiles, you killed him! He was still feeling under the weather this morning. How much did you make him drink?”

“Scott? Should have seen Parrish. He’s never fucked me so deliciously rough before.” Derek groaned, while Malia cheered and asked for details.

“It’s a special ability.”

“How come you didn’t die?” Braeden questioned both Derek and Stiles.

“We just kept winning,” Derek high-fived Stiles. “But,” Stiles added, “I’m not spilling my secret tactics. You were saying, Derek?”

He shook his head. “Yes. Our first game.” He flushed and cleared his voice. “For Malia’s happiness and by Lydia’s insistence, we, um, well, you, will teach our beautiful bride how to deep throat.”

Malia hooted. Braeden laughed. Hayden blushed. Cora rolled her eyes. And both Mrs. Yukimura and Melissa smirked. Stiles was scared of them.

“For this, you need to be in couples.”

Lydia immediately snatched Stiles before Malia. “Not fair! I wanted Stiles!”

“You snooze, you lose.”

“We’ll teach them,” Braeden smiled.

“Honey, get in line,” said Mrs. Yukimura intertwining her arm with Mamma McCall. Hayden and Cora shrugged at each other and joined up.

“Oh my god! Mom! I don’t wanna see this.”

Derek chuckled. “It’s a must. We’re judges.”

If the men of the pack were competitive, they had nothing on the women.

Derek arranged some chairs and explained the rules while he gave them a still warm breadstick. One of them would be sitting with the breadstick between her legs. The other one would kneel with her hands either on her back or her partner’s legs. The kneeled one would have to first get the breadstick as far as she could in her throat, hold there for 15 seconds. Then, she could take a breather and eat down the breadstick as fast as she could.

Lydia raised an eyebrow at Stiles. “Like I taught you.”

Stiles rolled her eyes and licked her lips. She put her hands on Lydia’s legs, while Lydia tangled a hand in her hair to keep it away from her mouth. Lydia smirked briefly at Derek, who was trying hard not to stare. He cleared his voice.

“All set?” Malia looked hungrily at the breadstick. Mrs. Yukimura shared a high-five with Melissa from her low position. Cora told Hayden not to worry much and breath through her nose. Stiles breathed deeply. “Go!”

“Dear lord! Mom!” Kira squealed trying to cover her eyes.

Derek laughed and kept her hands at bay, while her mom easily went down on the breadstick. Malia was having a little difficulty. It was not a comfortable position for a werecoyote. Hayden was struggling too; both Cora and Braeden were giving some guidance. However, Stiles was quite comfortable with the breadstick down her throat. Lydia had her practice with thicker dildos. She even hummed when Lydia accidentally on purpose pulled her hair and praised her form. Derek’s eyes snapped to them. He almost missed the time limit. Kira had to hit him to remind him.

“15 seconds are up!”

Malia and Hayden coughed a little. Both Mrs. Yukimura and Stiles breathed big and went back in. Unfortunately for the mother of the bride-to-be, Stiles ate as fast as a werewolf. If Malia hadn’t been having air trouble from the deep throating, she would have given Stiles some competition in the eating area.

“We have our winners!” Derek announced five seconds later. “Stiles and Lydia!”

Stiles laughed with a blush while Lydia flipped her hair. “Naturally.”

Melissa came next to Stiles. “I’m not sure if I want to congratulate you or worry about your father.”

Stiles groaned. “Oh my god, Melissa. Never mention my dad on these matters. Please.” She laughed goodheartedly and pushed her with her hip.

“Okay. Winners, any tips for the bride?”

Stiles gulped down another glass of water. “Let Lydia coach you for a month. That’s all you need, fox-girl. Though I don’t think Scott would be able to handle it.”

“Already ahead of you,” Kira winked, “yesterday was my last day.”

“Well, just don’t kill him through his dick on the wedding night. We do need an Alpha.”

“If you had been kneeling, we could have won!” Hayden lamented to Cora.

“Yes, well, there are some things a brother shouldn’t see his baby sister do,” Cora raised an eyebrow.

“Kira just saw his mother do it,” argued Lydia. Kira groaned and blushed. Mrs. Yukimura chuckled.

“It’s traumatizing enough to have seen my older sister actually do it,” Derek shivered. Stiles couldn’t stop her laughter. “I don’t think anything you’ll make Cora do today will ever beat that.”

“Do not challenge me, Hale.” Derek raised his hands in surrender. Lydia smirked and clapped. “Good. Moving on to the next thing. Honeymoon advice.”

They sat again on the couches. Derek brought drinks. Some beers, sodas, water and a margarita for Melissa.

“You should totally jump him and surprise him,” said Malia stretching.

Mrs. Yukimura and Melissa tutted and shook their heads. Mrs. Yukimura took over. “Sweetie, do not have sex until the next day. Trust me, you’ll both be dead tired.”

“Yes, a wedding is exhausting. Save the sexy parts for later.”

Kira bit her lip and nodded with pink-colored cheeks. Derek scratched his ear.

“Then let’s pretend is the next day and the fun begins,” Lydia said.

Stiles cleared her voice. “Well, um, you know Scotty. He’ll try to take you out and sightseeing because he wants to show you the world. So, if you’d rather have sexy shenanigans all the trip, you should take over pretty early and drive all other thoughts out of his mind.”

Kira seemed to be considering it. Lydia hummed. “Not just take over. Take control during sex. He won’t know what hit him.”

“Yes!” exclaimed Malia. “It’s really fun when guys don’t know what to do with themselves because you’re taking what you want already. Right, Derek?”

Derek gulped. The tips of his ears blushed and he shrugged unsure of how to answer.

“However,” Cora saved him, “it is quite nice to let them take you there.”

“That could happen the second time,” Braeden argued taking a sip of her beer.

“They can take you there while you guide them and praise them,” Lydia caressed Stiles’ hair, untying a small knot. Stiles struggled not to blush, remembering the couple of times they got together during college to help her explore, and trying also not to picture Derek between her legs (the aim of such exploration).

“Hayden, you’re awfully quiet,” nudged Kira, bringing Derek out of his head at the suggestion Lydia made. Derek apologized to her with his eyes.

“I, well, I don’t really know what to say,” she toyed with her soda. “Try new positions?”

Cora, Braeden, and Lydia hummed. Derek stifled his groan. “You’re getting to something interesting,” Lydia said.

“For example?” Kira wondered.

“Um, I don’t know, in the bathroom?”

“That’s not a position,” Stiles argued. “It could be like against the wall, with him taking all your weight and leaving you without any leverage.”

“That would mean letting him take control,” Braeden raised an eyebrow.

Stiles’ cheeks rose-colored. “Yeah…”

“Sounds like you’ve tried it,” Malia winked at her.

Stiles snorted. “Yeah, right. No human could handle that. A werewolf though?” she cleared her voice, and licked her lips failing not to think about Derek “Our Alpha? I’m pretty sure if you whispered to Scott what you want, it’ll not only work, but Scott would be more than happy to comply.”

“Dirty talking,” Melissa sighed with an effort not to picture her son in all these scenarios.

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” said Cora finishing her beer.

Derek cleared his throat and stood up. “Refills? Anyone?”

“Don’t run Derek!” Kira giggled.

“Not running, just being a good host,” he grumbled taking Stiles’ empty glass and Cora’s empty bottle away.

While he was in the kitchen, the bell rang making him frown. They were all there. Nobody was missing.

“I’ll get it!” yelled excitedly Malia. Derek feared the worst. He came back to a very happy Malia opening the door to a stripper. The stripper was muscled, tanned with pale hair and brown eyes. He was dressed as a firefighter.

“I heard there’s a fire in a bride.”

“Dude, what!” Stiles whispered to Lydia, who gave her a firm look indicating they had everything under control.

Derek heard Malia whispering strongly to the guy. “She’s the little Asian girl. Remember not to touch her. With the rest of us that are single, well, have fun.” The guy nodded and smirked at his crowd. He raised an eyebrow at Derek’s sight.

“I thought I was the only stripper in the party.”

Malia rolled her eyes. “That’s my cousin. Not a stripper. Go entertain us!” She pushed him towards the ladies’ cheers and whoops. Both Melissa and Mrs. Yukimura seemed to be the most excited.

“Mom!” Kira hid her face in her hands.

“Sweetie, your dad is human. He’ll never know. Someone has to enjoy this in your place.”

The guy stood in the middle of the living room. Derek stood back against the window, arms crossed, to let them enjoy the show freely. Nothing he could do about it now. The music began.

Lydia put a little silver tiara over all the single ladies and Mrs. Yukimura. Kira, Cora, Hayden, and Lydia had golden ones. The guy had been informed that gold was not to be touched: it meant taken.

He started dancing. He approached a little to Kira to blow her a kiss and open his jacket in front of her. However, he let Mrs. Yukimura push it away and have some fun with his abs. Stiles hadn’t seen abs so firm in a human.

He then turned to Melissa and danced on top of her for a while. He went back in front of Kira and let his pants drop. He danced in the middle again, toying with the floor as if it were a woman underneath him. His hips looked quite suggestive. Malia hooted, making Braeden and Stiles laugh out loud. But that brought attention to them.

The guy went to Braeden first, letting her hands roam free over his ass while he shook it in front of her. Then he turned to Stiles. She opened her eyes huge as he sat on top of her and started rolling his hips. Stiles squeaked nervously and tried to cover her eyes. The guy found it cute. He grabbed her hands and rubbed them all over his chest, each time lowering them to his dick.

“Oh my god!” she blushed anxiously.

Derek gripped his arms fiercely. Lydia glanced at him and stood next to him.

The guy chuckled and went to Malia. He let her rip off his boxers. Leaving him only in a thong that left not much to imagine. He danced a bit more on top of Malia and went back to the center. His solo dancing routine well practiced. From there he was judging who could he carry for the next part. Role-playing a sex air scene. He was between the cute one or the wild one.

Derek huffed and sat on a chair. “Hey!” he called out to the guy. He didn’t stop dancing but glanced at the not-stripper. “Do me next.”

The guy smirked. This would be interesting. He approached Derek and treated him to a slow, sinful dance. A show that the ladies enjoyed gladly. Stiles gaped while the rest chanted Derek’s name. She took out her phone and took a couple of pictures. This was not to be missed. Derek glared at the abs and dick on his face, with pink ears. The guy seemed to like the attention they were getting, so he put Derek’s hands on his ass. However, he needed to keep going with his routine. And the wild one would play better into it, though he wanted to be closer to the cute one. He left Derek alone and went to the wild one, stopping a moment to shake his butt in front of the others, letting them touch him and grab him wherever they wanted if they wanted.

Derek went back to the window and let the tension leave his shoulders, sighing.

“That was quite the show,” Stiles said smirking. Derek glared at her without any heat. Lydia’s suggestion to let himself in that position to save Stiles from any other advances was worth the blush she was wearing to mock him.

“If you think so,” he grumbled.

“I do,” she bumped their shoulders together. “And I’ve got proof for a lifetime.” She shook her cell phone in his face. He scowled.

“Delete it.”

“Nope. This ought to be preserved forever. Derek Hale gets a dick on his face,” she giggled looking at the picture. Derek looked at it over her shoulder and growled playfully low. He tried to take the phone, but she was fast.

“Stiles…” he narrowed his eyes.

They danced a little battle. Derek failing to get the phone and Stiles moving it away at the right moment with a merry laugh. Eventually, Derek managed to trap Stiles between his arms. Her back against his chest, while she kept her phone as far away as she could with her stretched arm.

“Erase it or else,” he growled at her ear. She trembled but shook the feeling.

“Or else what, Hale?”

They stared at each other, oblivious of the nonexistent distance between them, of the party around them. Until Derek winced and bumped his head against her shoulder groaning.

The guy was now carrying Malia to fake some sex scene out of a cowboy porn. Kira was having the laugh of her life. Stiles turned to the scene and chuckled.

“Yeah, baby!” Malia cheered, then leaned into the guy and licked his ear to whisper so low, only the supernaturals caught it. “Why don’t you actually fuck me?” It made the guy stumble for a moment.

Derek groaned again. Stiles shoved him with her shoulder, not concerning herself with the intimate position they still were in. “What is she saying?”

“Filthy things. I’m not repeating them. I don’t ever want to hear or think my cousin doing all that.”

Stiles laughed out loud. “Go get it, Malia!”

“Fuck yeah!” she laughed.

“Don’t rile her up!” Derek covered Stiles’ mouth and brought her closer to his chest. She shook with laughter and muffled encouragement. Lydia took a picture of them.

The guy moved on to Braeden, but there was a lingering promise between him and Malia.

Reluctantly, Derek let Stiles go. She turned to him with a smile and stood next to him.

“Not going back there?”

“Nah. I’m better here.”

“You didn’t like it?”

She scratched her neck. “It was nerve-wracking. I had no idea a guy could move like that.” She glimpsed at him.

“It’s not that hard. You just need rhythm and good moves,” he shrugged.

“Oh my! Derek Hale, were you a stripper once?” She tried to shove him.

“A couple of times in New York,” he smiled, “to help Laura a bit. But I realized it wasn’t really my thing and she freaked when she found out.”

“Well, duh. You could have given someone a heart attack with those abs and perpetual frown.”

He chuckled and looked at her. “My frown is sexy,” he deadpanned.

She laughed. Before she could embarrass herself and admit to that, the music stopped. The show was over. However, the guy didn’t have time to pick up his stuff. Malia pulled him over to her room in a haste.

Derek groaned. “That was why I said no to a stripper.”

Melissa stood up. “Well, girls. This was refreshing, but I need to get going for my shift.” She blew them all a kiss.

Braeden also said her goodbyes along something about chasing a werejaguar. Mrs. Yukimura pulled Kira over for a serious mother-daughter talk about her kitsune future as the wife of an Alpha. Lydia and Cora discussed something in hushed tones.

“You have more games planned, right?” asked Stiles.

“Yeah. But they’ll have to wait ‘til Malia is done.” He knocked his head against the wall.

“Were you planning on ordering food?” Derek nodded. “We could go get it instead. That way you won’t have to hear her.”

Derek smiled and pushed her to the door. “Let’s go. Be right back with food, Cora!”

She waved them off and kept talking with Lydia. “I’ll go with you!” said Hayden.

Once they were out and on their way to food, Hayden sighed from the back of the Camaro. “Thank goodness. I did not want to hear the sex noises.”

“That makes two of us,” Derek grumbled.

“How could Cora stand it?”

“They live together,” Derek shrugged. “You learn to block it out once you get used to it.”

“Besides,” Stiles added, “you have no idea how many people of this pack have messed around with each other, so a lot know how they sound.”

“Like who?”

“Well, Lydia with Jackson, Aiden, me on the off-time occasion for old crushes sake, and now Parrish; though I think she’s settling there.”

“You with Malia,” murmured Derek.

Stiles nodded. “You with Braeden. Scott with Allison, kissing Lydia, and that year he fooled around with Isaac, now marrying Kira. Melissa with Mr. Argent; Scott could smell it. It was weird.”

“Cora with Isaac.”

“That one time between Kira and Malia, pre-Scott.”

“And you two haven’t? You are pretty close.”

Stiles bit her lip and chuckled. “Well, there was one time we almost, you know. It was a life or death situation, but we managed to find a loophole and we didn’t.”

“And afterward? You never thought about it?”

Derek glanced at Stiles. She was nervously toying with her shirt and blushing. Her heartbeat was going fast. Stiles looked at him for a moment and licked her lips. “You’re gonna miss the turn.”

He went back to driving. They on purpose forgot Hayden’s question, yet she already had the answer. The pack was right. They were still two oblivious stubborn idiots.

They got huge amounts of Chinese food. Double the regular Derek was going to buy because Stiles’ assured him Malia would be more starving than usual. When they got back, indeed she was faming. And the guy was snoring in her bedroom.

“So I can ride him later when you’re all gone.”

They ate peacefully. The games would resume later. Lydia chatted with Kira about the last details and how everything was more than ready, making Stiles confirm her every word. They talked about how happy each was for this wedding.

“Okay,” Lydia demanded their attention while Derek took the rest of the food to the kitchen. “Time for the presents!”

Malia pushed the table closer. Stiles took out her cell phone for pictures.

“Mine first,” said Stiles. Kira smiled and took it. It was underwear, of the hot-cute kind. It was white lingerie with laces and negligee.

“Scott will be stupefied when he sees you in those,” Cora gave her approval. “Mine next.” Hers was a silk bathrobe, in lilac tones. Kira caressed it and thanked her.

Malia gave hers next. It was a whole set of condoms, lube, and thongs. “You gotta be ready,” she winked making Kira blush.

Lydia gave her a sweet perfume, that Derek said wouldn’t hurt Scott’s nose much. Kira missed putting it on.

“I don’t think mine rises to the occasion,” said Hayden giving hers. It was a set to keep her sword clean. Kira thanked her happily. She was starting to run low on it.

“It’s about giving her things she’ll need and likes,” Derek shrugged and gave his. He gave her the Star Wars saga as a reminder of their first date. It made her laugh.

“Finally, Scott’ll see them!” Stiles yelled. However, underneath it was a pair of nun-chucks she had eyed for a couple of months.

“Good. For when he forgets dinner,” said Kira. Everybody laughed.

Lydia gave her a home-spa kit. “A massage before sex is always great.”

Last, but not least, was Mrs. Yukimura. She gave her a centuries-old tome about their kitsune legacy. “You’re starting your own family. This will help.”

They hugged. Braeden’s gift turned out to be a rare obsidian stone for luck. And Melissa wrote her a heartfelt letter that Kira promised to read later.

Derek brought out the next game.

“This will drastically change the mood. It’s twister, but, instead of colors, we have male body parts.” He spread it on the floor. Instead of blue, there were balls. Instead of red, there were dicks. Instead of yellow, there were abs. Instead of green, there were muscled arms. “You’re all playing. Whoever loses, owes Kira a future favor for married couples aid. Whoever wins, gets a free pass on married couples activities.”

Malia and Hayden cheered happily. Stiles knew that she’d end up helping them, free pass or not, but the game still sounded fun. They settled. Mrs. Yukimura next to Cora on one side. Lydia and Stiles on another. Malia and Hayden on another. Kira on another. Derek would be turning the arrow.

In no time, they were all tangled up trying to tickle one another and make them loose. Hayden was the first to surrender under Malia’s and Stiles’ fingers, even when it had taken them a while to find her ticklish spot.

“Get in there Derek! I’ll turn it now,” Hayden baited him. Kira cheered him on, so he complied.

He got in place and the game resumed. Lydia was the next to fail. She was smaller and couldn’t reach the next dick. She huffed and sat with Hayden. Cora and Malia attacked Derek, while Stiles and Mrs. Yukimura attacked Kira. Mrs. Yukimura was out next. Then Cora. Kira made Malia slip.

Stiles had Kira’s waist on her face and Derek’s arms beside her legs. However, with the next twist, Stiles ended somehow half on top of Kira and below Derek. She tried to accommodate herself better, but accidentally bumped him with her butt where she shouldn’t. This made him grunt and her squeal. They both tumbled off of Kira. She rose victorious. They all owed her a married favor. Stiles laughed embarrassed, while Cora helped Derek up. In seconds, he was fine again.

It was late by then. Twister took up most of their afternoon. And the bride needed two great night’s rest away from her fiancé; Yukimura tradition or something. They cleaned up fast. The stripper was waking up and Malia had needs. It made them clean faster.

They all hugged Kira outside the building and went home their separate ways.


	3. One day to go

The day before the wedding was meant for everyone’s rest. Yet Stiles still couldn’t see her dress or shoes. She was under threat not to take a peek until the very day of the wedding. However, Lydia had sent her two links to watch and make sure she had everything needed for the hair-style and make-up. Neither seemed hard. Once Stiles knew how many pins she’d need and knew she had them, she decided to just lazy the day out with some more gaming. Trying, and failing, not to think about Derek, she kept haunting herself with the outfit Lydia picked out, while a tiny part of her brain was thinking about maybe working on her thesis.

In an hour, she couldn’t handle it anymore. She changed her pajamas for some shorts, a t-shirt, and a plaid, along with her converse. She took her small bag with her laptop (she needed an excuse and her thesis would work for that) and hopped into Roscoe. She may be forbidden to watch the dress, but not Derek. Besides, it’s not like she didn’t do it to finally snoop around Derek’s new house out there in the Preserve, where the old manor’s ruins were finally replaced by something comfy and livable. Or so claimed the pictures and everything they had chosen together via Skype. She hadn’t been able to actually look around like she wanted to.

When the house was finally in sight, Derek was already waiting on the porch.

“Hey,” Stiles saluted when she was within her own hearing range.

“Hey,” Derek turned into the house, “have you eaten yet? I was about to make a snack.”

“I have,” she said following him in. She stopped at the living room to leave her stuff on the couch and then went to the kitchen. “But you know I can always eat. Besides, breakfast feels like eons ago.”

Derek chuckled and shook his head. Everybody knew what an abyss she had for a stomach. He started putting together a couple of sandwiches. “What’s in the bag?”

“My laptop. I thought maybe I’d focus on my thesis better here? My room is full of tempting video games and procrastination and prohibited things.”

Derek snorted. “And your laptop isn’t?”

“Hey!” Stiles protested non-offended. And sighed biting her lower lip. “It is, but maybe you could watch over so I don’t click on anything besides my word document or web related pages?”

He put the plates on the counter and pushed Stiles her own. “I can do that. What else is forbidden?”

“Knowledge of my wedding outfit,” she grumbled. Derek raised a questioning eyebrow. “Lydia banned me from looking at it. I bet is something scandalous I’d never wear, so she’s threatened to rip my boobs and ovaries off if I take a single peek before putting it on. Probably so I can’t do a damn thing to change it last minute. I don’t even know what color it is!”

Derek cleared his voice, trying to stifle a laugh. “It’s probably blue.”

“Blue? Why blue?”

“Our jackets are blue.” Derek shrugged.

“Okay, but what blue?” Derek took a deliberate bite off his sandwich. “Oh, come on! You can’t just give me a teeny tiny bit of info and not the whole thing! It’s rude! It’s torture!”

Stiles had a brilliant idea then. Derek’s jacket had to be in the house, more likely in his bedroom. Derek was still halfway through his snack. She could probably run up before he caught up with her, take a look and know at least the color. It wouldn’t even be cheating as she wasn’t looking at _her_ outfit.

She grinned manically.

“Stiles?” Derek frowned.

She sprinted from the kitchen, recalling very well the house’s blueprints. It took Derek ten seconds to realize her plan. By that time, she was already at the top of the stairs. She may or may not had buffed her speed with the wind’s help. She was almost at the closet when Derek managed to catch up. He grabbed her by the waist, raised her in the air and threw her to the bed.

She groaned punching the bed. “I was so close!”

Derek smirked. “Not on my watch.”

She stood up and elevated herself on her tiptoes the few inches that made Derek taller. She narrowed her eyes at him. She could take him down. Derek raised a challenging eyebrow with a glint in his eyes. Stiles grabbed him by the shirt, put her leg behind his right ankle, pulled him in slightly, only to shove him to the bed with a brief wind back-up. But Derek had foreseen this move. He grabbed her arm and waist before she twisted out of her grip and flipped them over. He then pinned both her arms against the bed.

“Fat chance, Stilinski.”

“I can totally out-wrestle you, Hale.”

Derek’s eyes crinkled as she writhed against his hold. They both knew she could win a fight against him, but that would require hurting him, a lot. They also knew she wouldn’t use her spark against him, nor he would use real supernatural strength against her.

She huffed and stopped trying to get fruitlessly away. “Come on, Derek! Just a peek! It wouldn’t even count as cheating or be breaking my promise! It won’t be my dress. It’s just your jacket.”

He snorted. “And then Lydia would disembowel both of us. I already said too much by giving away the color.”

“But there are so many blues! Is it wolf blue?”

Derek flashed his to make a point. Which one? Neither knew. “No.”

“Cobalt?”

Derek rolled his eyes. “No.”

“Cyan?”

Derek frowned. “No.”

“How about-”

“Stop trying to guess. I’m not telling.”

“ _Deeerek!_ ” Stiles whined, arched her back slightly, and bumped her knee with the outside of Derek’s left leg. That’s when she realized the position they were in. It wasn’t exactly a new position for them if you counted all the times Derek’s covered her in threatening situations or in their training, usually throwing her to the ground. The only difference this time was the bed, Derek’s bed.

Derek was looming over her, with her arms pinned down by her head, and his left leg was between her legs. She blushed, because this was definitely Derek’s room and therefore Derek’s bed. Wolves were very particular with their room scents. Derek seemed to have just realized it as well, as his eyes opened slightly and his lips were frozen on a silent small ‘o’. However, soon his expression turned to his usual frown and he bent his head to the side, as he did when he was listening to something from afar.

“Your phone’s ringing.”

“Which song?”

“Scottie doesn’t know?”

“Oh, it’s Scott.”

Derek snorted. “You have a ringtone for everyone? Shouldn’t Scott have something more… cute? You think Scott’s cute.”

She shrugged. They still hadn’t moved, but honestly, neither was in a hurry.

“Well, yeah. It’s easier to know if I have time to answer or to pick it up fast. And Scott’s only cute sometimes, not all the time. Isaac’s the one who’s always cute.”

Derek seemed to be thinking. “What’s mine?”

Stiles stared at Derek like she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “Uh…um, not telling. It’s only fair not to know your own ringtone. It adds to the mystery. Also, you didn’t tell me the blue tone.”

Derek rolled his eyes again. “He’s calling again.” He started to get up.

She frowned. “Then he must really need to talk to me.”

He stretched a hand towards her to help her up. She grabbed it willing her blush to go away and her heart to calm the fuck down. No luck. She took the stairs two at a time and quickly took out her phone from her bag.

“Yo, Scotty.”

“Stiles! Where are you?! You’re not home! I need you at home! No. Where are you? It’d be faster if I go to you.” Stiles pictured Scott like a raving caveman, shifting everywhere on the spot for his supposed lost mace in his hand.

“Breathe, Scott. You sound about to have an asthma attack and you can’t get that with all the werewolf juice you’re on. Where’s the fire?”

“I don’t remember the dance steps!”

Stiles sighed for patience to the ceiling. Derek was shaking his head at Scott’s entire existence. It was a really simple and cute dance. Still, they had practiced it, and practiced it, and _practiced_ it for months and then some. Kira had Stiles skyping with them whenever she couldn’t be physically there, or just recorded it and gave it to Stiles later. So she would know it and be ready for when precisely this happened because they both knew it would. Stiles loved Kira.

“I’m at Derek’s.” She knew he was coming as she only received the disconnect tone as an answer. “Can you believe that’s your Alpha?”

“Your brother-from-another-mother before he was my Alpha.”

Stiles gaped at Derek’s imitating voice of her own. He smirked and prepared the song on the TV’s speakers. Their moment upstairs apparently forgotten, yet Stiles knew she’d be dreaming about it for the rest of her life.

Scott was opening the door and bursting in less than five minutes later. He was really panicking. “Stiles!”

“Calm down. I can perfectly well hear you, no need to yell, man.”

“But Stiles-”

Stiles grabbed him by the shoulders. “I know them all. Don’t worry.”

Derek pushed back the couches to give them space. Stiles pulled Scott into a specific spot and walked away from him until she was on the other side of the room. She nodded to Derek and he pressed play on the song. _Sugar_ from Maroon 5 started sounding.

“Okay, so. You start swaying in your spot Hitch-style, clapping your hands to bring the crowd in. Then take small steps towards Kira; she’ll be doing the same. When Adam says ‘knees’, you bend down for a moment, then stand up again. Your steps get faster, and you try to woo her by grabbing her hand and surrounding her. Like this.” Stiles grabbed him and came closer, then pushed him away. “She’s gonna play hard to get. Then the chorus arrives and you have a moment of free couple style. Do whatever feels right: spin her, go side to side according to the rhythm. Then the music will fade, and a slow one will come up.” Stiles nodded to Derek and _All of me_ of John Legend started. Scott and she swayed slowly. “This is the time for you two only. You’ll waltz slowly, sing to each other, scent her hair slightly, twirl her and bring her close again. Yes, like that. Chat with her, remind her how much you love her through your words and hands. You’ll have four whole minutes for yourselves. Okay?”

Scott nodded, then frowned. “But, we’re supposed to dance with other people as well.”

“Yes. After this song. As it is ending, you’ll twirl her into her father’s arms. Try it now.” He did and she was caught mid-twirl by Derek’s soft hand. She gulped discreetly as they swayed together for a bit. “Then, as you nod to him, you go looking for your mom and let her smother you. Afterwards, I come over your mom and my dad will take over Mr. Yukimura. And so on until you’ve danced with all the pack. Easy, right?”

Derek stopped leading in order to go stop the music. Scott let himself fall on the couch. Stiles followed him, noticing how her hand and the spot on her waist where Derek’s hand had been were warmer than the rest of herself. Derek sat on Scott’s other side.

“Man, I got really scared. I woke up and Kira wasn’t there, because of some Japanese tradition.”

“I think it’s also an occidental tradition not to see your bride before and on the wedding day.”

“Awful.” Scott frowned. “Then I didn’t remember the steps. I could have ruined everything!”

“Nah,” she patted him. “Kira’s far too smart and knowing to help you on site, and I am here to be your back up brain. Or regular brain, really. My brain has worked for both of us since we were toddlers.”

They laughed a bit. Then Scott frowned again. “What are you doing here by the way?”

“Well, I thought I’d work better here on my thesis than in my enclosed room. But since you’re already here, there’s no way that’s happening now. Want to watch a movie to calm down more?”

After three movies, a meal, and popcorn, Scott was still nervous. Stiles sighed and put _Hulk_ on pause.

“Stiles?” Scott wondered.

“Shush a moment. I have to find it,” she was searching her backup labyrinths on her cell phone. “Here it is!” She turned the phone around and gave it to Scott. “Watch.”

It was a compilation video filled with small Kira moments. Then it switched to Kira talking to the camera, fully knowing Scott would be watching. Derek and Stiles left Scott in the living room watching and rewatching the video.

“That’ll keep him calm.”

“You and Kira really thought this through, huh?”

“Yup,” Stiles sat down on the kitchen counter. “We know Scotty pretty well.”

Derek bumped into her side and remained standing there. “What do we do now?”

Stiles shrugged. “He’ll be in his own bubble for a while. We could leave and he wouldn’t know, but he could freak out again and tear your place apart. Hey! Idea. You could show me around.”

“You already know this place inside out,” Derek rolled his eyes. Stiles jumped off the kitchen counter and pulled his arm.

“But pictures don’t make it justice. Come on, show me.”

They crossed the living room, leaving a goofy Scott behind, and entered another door using Derek’s claws as an opening mechanism. Stiles gasped. It was the library and it looked better than the sketches Derek had sent. It wasn’t too big, but it was an entire room dedicated to books of every kind. Mythological lore, supernatural research, magic tomes, literature in bunches, and even some volumes dedicated to each of the pack’s careers. To the far end were the few books saved from the Hale fire that narrated not only the Hale’s history but also their own stories. The floor was covered in fluffy carpet and filled with puffs for comfort reading.

Derek watched her caress the books’ spines and wiggle her toes on the carpet. She looked back at him with a huge smile. “It’s amazing.” He smiled back.

“Is it like you imagined?”

Stiles shook her head and walked back to the door where he was. “It’s better.”

After, he pointed to the other doors in the living room. One was the bathroom, the other was a closet with blankets and pillows for movie nights. They tiptoed around Scott and went upstairs. To the left was Derek’s bedroom. She turned right to the other three rooms.

The first one was a private office. It had a desk and a sofa that looked prepared to become a bed. There was also a board, some books, and post-its; Derek must have been working on a translation. The next room was another bathroom. The last one was a guest room, with quite a big bed to fit half the pack in it.

All in all, people could crash in three big spaces without disturbing Derek’s own space. Stiles bit her lip. She wanted to go back to Derek’s room and appreciate it this time around. As if reading her mind, he tugged her hand in that direction. He opened the door and invited her in. She glanced at him and blushed a little.

His bed took most of the floor. She gulped and turned to the big windows, almost half body size, giving a natural light to the room. They showed the woods behind the house with its clear meadow for pack barbeques. Stiles could perfectly see the trail leading to the lake. Derek stood next to the closet, preventing her from peeking inside for his jacket. She pouted while he grinned cheekily. There was a small bookshelf on the other wall, next to the bathroom’s door. It had Derek’s favorites and a picture of his family.

She turned around to him, hands on her hips. “Technically, your closet is part of the tour.”

He hummed and sided his head. “Perhaps. I’ll show you after the wedding.” She groaned. “Come on. Scott’s calling us.”

She huffed and went out first. “That’s mean. I only wanted to see the color.”

“You wanted to cheat.”

“A loophole isn’t cheating,” she singsonged.

He chuckled. “Tell that to Lydia.”

Stiles pouted and jumped on the couch next to Scott. “You summoned us, oh mighty Alpha?”

Scott rolled his eyes. He was looking definitively calmer and a little tired. Nerves did that to you. “Can you give me a ride home? I ran here. Unless you were planning on staying and finish the movie?”

She bit her lip, not allowing her eyes to see Derek. “Well, it is kind of a blasphemy not to finish a movie, but you need to rest and tomorrow’s the big day…” Derek nodded along with an inaudible sigh. She sighed. “Let’s go, Scotty.”

Scott gave Derek a hug and went outside. She picked up her bag and laptop. Derek followed her to the door. She stopped on the porch’s first step and turned around. “The house is perfect, Derek,” she smiled.

And it was. The only thing missing from it was the big family Derek intended it for. Stiles knew it was a matter of time before he found that certain special someone. She had no idea what she’d do when that happened. Or if her plan of taking over Derek’s space for the months it’d take her to write her thesis would be enough to become that someone.

“See you tomorrow,” he said softly. She stared into his eyes for a couple of beats, then nodded. She hopped into Roscoe and waved Derek goodbye. Scott seemed to be asleep in the passenger seat, though after some miles he spoke.

“When are you going to make a move?”

She bit her lip. “Well…my thesis was the move?”

“Oh, shit. Did I ruin it?” She shrugged. “Wait, this isn’t another ten-year plan, right?”

“More like a year plan?”

Scott huffed. “Come one. Just tell him. It’ll work.”

She glared at him. “That’s what I told you and it took two years for you to ask Kira. And she was already your girlfriend! You can’t use that in this scenario.”

“Of course I can. I am sure that one word from you and you two will be sassing ever after. Being assholes and creating a loving, beautiful family.”

Stiles laughed, then sighed. “I don’t know, Scott…”

“You’re just scared. But everything is in your favor now. You’re no longer a teenager, you’re out of college for the most part, and you’re moving back. You’ll have all the opportunities now.”

Stiles parked outside his house. “What if he doesn’t feel the same?”

“Trust me on this, okay?”

Scott didn’t wait for an answer and went into his house. Stiles shook her head, but the fluttering hope was already nesting in her chest.


	4. Extra: The time they almost did the do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's taken me so long to update, but I've had a lot of work. So here's a little gift to you. Enjoy!

Stiles had come down for a weekend to visit everybody. She didn’t even make it into town before something knocked her out and grabbed her.

When she came back to herself with a groan, she opened her eyes to the familiar sight of kidnapping. Though this time it looked like a dungeon and she was chained to the wall at a high point that kept her hands over her head and her toes barely touching the floor.

The disturbing part was that she felt off, but she couldn’t quite point out why. Had they drugged her? She didn’t feel fuzzy or drowsy. She checked the surroundings and found other people in her same situation. More urgently, she saw werewolves pacing inside mountain ash circles. One of them was Derek. He had his blue wolf eyes fixed on her, though he was the only one not shifted.

“Derek,” she gasped.

He stopped. “Can you break the line?” There was a bit of growl in his voice. Perhaps there was something in the air pushing at his control.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Bitch, please, Derek. That’s Magic 101.” She tried to focus her energy, but nothing answered. She looked up alarmed and tried again. Her magic was gone, entirely suppressed. “What- I- I can’t.” Derek looked up at her wrists. Stiles’ eyes followed. The chains. If she could get them off, she could get them out.

Stiles struggled against them. Jumped to unhook them. Tried to pull herself up. They cut into her skin drawing blood. Nothing worked. They weren’t coming off. She checked the wall for something with an edge or anything that helped. Nothing. She tugged at them.

“Stop,” Derek growled. “You’re only hurting yourself. And he’s coming.”

A rather tall man came in. He had brown hair and dark eyes, though his skin was pale. He seemed to be sporting a bad cough and shivered from time to time. “Ah, you’re awake, mutt lover.”

“I have a name. I’d say it, but I didn’t get yours, jerk. Not that it matters. My pack will come and shred you to pieces.” She knew she was bluffing. Scott would never just rip into someone. He’d prefer to bring them to justice.

“That won’t happen. They don’t know you’re here. I watched you. This was a surprise visit. And that one,” he pointed at Derek, “was going out of town. They don’t expect to see or hear from either in a while.”

“Then why take us? You could have just killed us.”

“Ah, yes. Indeed, I could have. But I wish to impart a lesson upon you. I do not murder humans. I hunt the wicked.”

“Derek isn’t wicked.”

“Of course, you would believe that. You adore them. Call them by their past human names. But, you’ll see my child,” he approached her and patted her cheek in a grandfather gesture, “they are all just waiting the perfect moment to rip _you_ to shreds. What else would they keep you around for?”

“You’ve gone mental, man.”

He sighed. “I’ll have to make this a live lesson, I see. I wished words would get to you, but you’re blind.” He walked around the room, looking intently at each wolf.

“I’ll do it,” Derek spoke up. “I have been biding my time in this territory to eat her up.”

The man grinned with evil glee. Stiles was confused. “Ah, that would be most ideal, yes. To be betrayed by one of her closest mutts.” He went back to the front of the dungeon and surrounded himself with mountain ash. Then he took a long metal staff and freed Derek.

Derek cracked his neck a couple of times and paced towards her. Every line of his muscles screamed predator advancing, but his eyes were sure and clear. Stiles kept on looking from him to the man, then back again.

He stopped in front of her and punched the wall next to her head. She jumped at the noise and focused on him.

“Look at me.” Derek winked at her and smirked. Stiles confusion eased a bit. He had a plan. And it probably included releasing her from the chains to help Derek claw this man’s eyes out. From that distance, the man for sure wouldn’t be able to see clearly what happened.

With a clawed hand, he grabbed her face with apparent strength behind and force slipped a leg between hers, supporting her against the wall. It was all a show, yet Stiles’ whimper was real. In this position, the pain on her arms and wrists eased a little, but he was also stimulating her core without meaning to. This shouldn’t arouse her, but it did.

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this,” he muttered darkly. He pushed her head to the side and exposed her neck to his fangs. He trailed it up and down. She shivered. Things were going to get heated very soon, very fast, if he kept doing that.

“Fuck, Derek, what-”

“Stop talking. You’re always fucking making noises and words.” He brought her face back to his. “So defiant all the time.” Stiles could read him, so she fake-struggled a little and opened her mouth with the intention to talk, but all that came out was a small huff. Derek had taken her other leg up to his hip and pushed himself closer. “You’ll do as I say.”

She opened wide her eyes and nodded with a whimper. This was quite exciting. Stiles’d never seen such dominance from Derek. He proved his power and strength all the time when battling other creatures, but he learned to be careful with his pack since little age. This act was going to be forever ingrained in her mind.

A piece of clothing was shredded. Probably from his jeans, but made believe it was hers. She bit her lip with force. He grabbed her wrists and chains. “You have no power here. You’re under my control.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. The chanting went on. With him so close and in a compromising posture, for sure he could smell her lust. There was no denying it.

“I want to hear you yell.” He rattled her wrists, pretending to dig in his claws. She let out a small scream. “Louder.” She complied. Her voice concealed the chains’ crack and her magic came rushing from everywhere at once. It choked her a bit, but it felt all the better. She felt whole again.

He jostled her roughly as an excuse for the gasp that she made until she could stand on one foot with confidence. He returned her face to his. Her eyes focused. A second later, when she smiled, Derek rushed against the man and tore his throat out in a single move.

Stiles let herself rest against the wall, rubbing her wrists. He came back to her walking slow and cleaned the blood on his shirt. He cracked his neck once more and released her completely from the cuffs. Then he tore a piece of her undershirt and covered her wounds.

“Let’s get out of here.”

She nodded, unsure of what to say but still under the influence of his Derekness.

Once outside, Stiles noted she had her cell. She called Scott and the others, flailed a little while explaining and pacing. They couldn’t leave all those others behind. The pacing was to get herself under control.

After she hung up, she sat next to Derek’s uptight standing figure and focused her breathing. She meditated to calm her magic down and get her brain truly back in order. When she opened her eyes, she looked up to Derek watching her.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, it was awful to be cut off my spark and then a lot to handle when it came back so suddenly. I’m not sure how I focused it enough not to burst out of my skin and just clear your way.”

He shrugged. “You’re good.” Stiles ripped some grass and shrugged too, but kept quiet.

When the pack arrived and asked for a more detailed retelling of the events, neither of them talked about what Derek’s plan of convincing the guy to get close to her actually included.


	5. The Wedding

The day arrived. Scott was getting married to Kira. Stiles couldn’t be happier for them.

The wedding was planned for noon in a beautiful open space. Stiles woke up at nine to make sure she had time for everything, to do a brief recap of the stuff she needed and to be there early to see it all go through smoothly. After having a good traditional scrambled eggs breakfast with her dad, she got in the shower. She took her time to shave her legs, armpits and trim her most personal spot. When she came out, her dad gave her a kiss on her forehead. He needed to check something at the station before going to the wedding, so he was heading out first.

“The jeep’s working fine, right?”

“Yeah, dad. Roscoe is okay. I’ll get to the wedding just fine.”

“Okay, kiddo. See you there!”

Finally, it was time to see her dress. She closed her eyes as she zipped down the bag it came in, half dreading what scandalous piece of clothing Lydia got her. Yet she was left breathless once she took it out. It was a hug-shoulder dark blue dress with small dazzling silver spots that seemed to come alive in the light. It was long with an opening to let her right leg slip through, reaching her mid-thigh. The shoes Lydia got her were silver closed wedges strapped to the ankle. She had never seen a beautiful dress like this one before.

It was no wonder that when she put it on it fitted her perfectly, hugging her body in all the right places; Lydia knew her body almost better than Stiles herself did. With care, she put on her natural make-up that made her eyes look bigger and her lips stand out, then she did her hair in a messy low side bun that somehow looked elegant and graceful. Her earrings were small silver tears and her necklace a single silver tear that rested at the hollow of her neck.

As she stood up in her shoes, she checked her cell phone for the time. It was already eleven o’clock. Quickly she grabbed the small purse Lydia had lent her and put her keys, ID, phone, and a small pouch of mountain ash just in case. You were never too careful.

She ran the steps down and went out to Roscoe. Once in, though, it didn’t start up.

“No, no, no, baby, come on. You can’t do this to me. Not today, love.” She kept on trying, but after the seventh time she gave up. She bit her lip. Lydia would have her head. Scott would panic. Kira was absolutely out of the question. Her dad would give her a judgmental eyebrow. Derek was the real choice.

With a sigh, she dialed his number.

“Stiles? Everything okay?”

“Hey, Derek. Yes, everything’s fine. Mostly. Um, please tell me you’re not there already? Roscoe died on me and my dad would just mock me. Can you come pick me up?” She went back to the house. There was no reason to wait next to her traitor jeep.

“I’ll be there in ten. Scott’s going to need you soon.” He hung up.

She sighed and tried not to pick on her hair, bit her lips or nails. It would have ruined all too early her effort. Sooner than he said, Stiles heard the Camaro’s familiar purr. She went outside once more. This time she had to steady her heartbeat. Derek was reclined next to the passenger door, waiting for her with his hands in his pockets and shades over his eyes. Stiles licked her lips and felt her stomach flutter with yearning. He looked delicious. It was getting harder to control her body’s reactions now than in previous years. Damn it, Scott. He had to put the hope there.

She walked toward him and couldn’t resist hugging him. “Oh my god, dude. You’re a lifesaver.” She was taller than him for a few inches in these shoes.

Stiles felt him chuckle. “I know. You’re just realizing it now?”

She snorted and accepted his help opening the door and getting in the car. After he closed it, he went behind the wheel. “No. But this would be the first time you’d have to save me from our Alpha and his soon to be wife.”

Derek smiled. “I can’t believe it’s going to happen.”

“Tell me about it. Scott’s getting married. With Kira. After all these years. I was afraid he’d take longer, honestly.”

He laughed. “We all were. Kira was even starting to think maybe she should be the one proposing.”

Stiles laughed. “That would have been priceless.”

Soon Derek was parking. Before Stiles could get out, he was already at her side lending a hand.

“Why are you being such a gentleman? Are you really Derek?” She poked him to make sure he was real.

He rolled his eyes. “I’ve seen you walk in your sneakers. I’m preventing you from bashing your brains out on the steps.” Yup, there was her favorite asshole. Still, if he kept this attention all throughout the wedding and party, people were going to think he was her date. Not that she minded. She really wanted to be his date, but she rather he asked her first.

It was her turn to roll her eyes. “You don’t have to. Lydia trained me in the art of high-heels.”

He frowned as he lent her his arm to climb the steps easier. “In what she didn’t train you,” he muttered.

“Magic,” she grinned cheekily.

There was a small church in a side of the building where the wedding would take place. Then they would move to the lovely and huge yard for the reception. Derek guided her to Scott’s waiting chambers and left her there to go to Kira’s side.

She knocked before entering. Scott was breathing purposefully slow at the window.

“Hey, man,” she smiled and went to stand by his side. From there, they could watch over the yard where the real party would take place. Scott nodded to her and kept on breathing.

“It’s going to be wonderful,” she whispered and laid her head on his shoulder. He nodded again. “She loves you. And when the time comes, you’ll be a magnificent father.” He nodded once more. “You did manage to somehow rein in Malia and Liam.” That got her a small grin. Her cell phone vibrated. Lydia texted her it was time to begin. “You’re ready for this. To start your forever after with Kira. Come.”

She pulled him by his arm towards the door. Outside was waiting Melissa. She was almost tearing up in happiness. She hugged Scott and ushered Stiles to go along. She got it from there. Stiles took one last look at them hugging and went to find her place on the line. First entering would be Liam with Hayden. Then Parrish with Lydia. Then Isaac with Cora. Then Stiles with Derek. They would all walk the aisle before Scott entered by his mother’s arm and took his place in front of Stiles, in the men line. Then Kira would go in by her father’s arm with the classical song until she stood face to face with Scott, in front of Derek’s line, the women’s.

They filtered in among the guests. Some were town folk, others were outside packs paying their respects, others were creatures and people they’ve saved in time. When they’re time came, Stiles grabbed with nervousness Derek’s arm. There were a few whispers she, fortunately, couldn’t hear but knew were about them by the way Derek’s grip on her arm tightened a little. There were even some gasps when they split and took the opposite regular designated genre places. Derek smiled at her, dissipating her doubts.

Then came Scott. Stiles felt as proud as Melissa. This was her brother from another mother. Her best friend. And he looked truly happy. Melissa kissed his cheek before going to sit next to the sheriff. Stiles put a hand on his back to remind him they were all there for them. However, when Kira came in with her father, everybody else seemed to disappear for Scott. He was awestruck. All who were there that day could feel Scott’s love pouring out of him and landing on Kira. He had to restrain himself from kissing her then and there before the ceremony even began. Stiles and Derek shared a complicity eye roll.

The ceremony itself was brief, tender and passed in a blur of Scott’s and Kira puppy love. One moment Stiles was blinking at Derek, then she was giving Scott his ring, and then Scott was finally kissing Kira with cheers all around them. Melissa was crying and the sheriff was not so discreetly wiping tears away; so were the Yukimuras and most of the guests. They took some pictures with the recently wed and then went out to the reception. Lydia and Parrish helped accommodate everybody in their correct table. Derek helped Stiles cross the grass and then they were both seated at the pack’s table, near Scott’s and Kira’s private one.

While the rest of the guests were still finding their way and taking pictures elsewhere, Stiles decided to do the same. All her pictures with Derek were with the pack, she didn’t have one of only them. What better occasion than this one to change that?

“Hey, come closer,” she moved her chair until her right leg touched his. She positioned her phone for a horizontal selfie. Behind them was quite an amazing view. When Derek only frowned at her. “Come on, Sourwolf, it’s just a photo. This is a day to remember. Scott said ‘I do’.”

She put her arm around his shoulders and pulled at him until their heads bumped together. Once he finally turned to face the camera, her thumb took their picture. Then she frowned. He wasn’t smiling in the picture. She pouted at him. He still looked insanely attractive, but she wanted him to show off his bunny teeth. Without them noticing, Cora took a picture of them being that close.

“I’ve seen you smile. I know it doesn’t kill you to do it. Come oooon, smile.” He rolled his eyes and turned to the camera again. This time she pinched him until he huffed and tickled her. Still, she got what she wanted. Derek smiled at the camera. She let his shoulders go. “You will be dancing this time, right? You always refused to go with us clubbing.”

He scrunched up his nose. “The music’s too loud there.”

“Then it’s not because you don’t know how to dance.”

“I do have moves, Stilinski,” he pushed her a little.

“Mmm, seeing is believing, Hale,” he narrowed his eyes at her. He knew where this was going. “I dare you to dance with me.”

“It is on.”

The glint in his eyes made her want to rile him up. She had a come-back ready, but it was time for Scott’s and Kira’s triumphal entrance, along with their newlywed dance. She sat up and prayed Scott would remember the steps.

It was lovely to see them together. Fun to watch them play a little on the dancefloor. Even cuter though was to witness them getting lost in themselves. Soon Scott was twirling Kira into her father’s arms and went to look for his mom. Derek helped her rise from her chair and they both went to wait nearby. A line formed behind them. Stiles and Derek both stepped up to Scott and Kira respectively.

Scott was on the verge of happy tears. Stiles messed up his hair and hugged him while they swayed. “I’m proud of you.”

He tightened his arms. “Couldn’t have done it without you.”

Then Scott twirled her out, where Derek caught her hand to pull her aside to keep on dancing and watch closely how everybody else danced with them. Once everybody had passed and people remained there, the music switched to an upbeat rhythm. Stiles grip became stronger in Derek’s arms when she felt him trying to step away.

“Oh, no. You’re not getting away.”

Derek huffed and rose to the challenge. His hips moved like sin. Stiles was openly gaping and staring. Then Derek pulled her in by the waist. “It takes two to dance, otherwise it’s a show,” he whispered.

Stiles gulped and matched his steps. Now she knew why he had to quit being a stripper. How many ladies did he kill with a heart attack of lust? She shook her head and focused on enjoying herself. They weren’t glued to each other, as they would be in a club, but she could feel his warmth close, separating her from the others. They remained in their little bubble until the music mellowed down once more and Lydia came to tap her shoulder.

It was time for her speech.

The pack remained on the dancefloor with Scott and Kira in the middle. A waiter gave them champagne glasses. Stiles cleared her voice and pulled everybody’s attention.

“I always thought Scott would get married with his first love right after high school finished. But they fell apart, leaving a gaping wound on Scott, and then Ally died.” Some of the pack sniffed, while both lovebirds wore shiny eyes. “We were all heartbroken; for him, for us, for her. However, as today proves,” she smiled and grabbed Kira’s hand, “Kira appeared. When Scott met Kira, it was beautiful. It still is. Yes, Allison had hit Scott like a truck, she did it to all of us, but Kira… Kira is subtle, like a fox.” Even some other creatures that knew what was up laughed at this.

“The sweet shyness of Kira took Scott under by millimeters and seconds, slowly putting him back together and beyond. Kira made Scott fall in love without him noticing. I mean, you’ve all heard the story of their first kiss, right?” Scott groaned and Kira blushed giggling. “They weren’t even together together, when Scott simply pecked her farewell before class. Because it was a natural thing for him to do with her at that point, or so I think his brain said. But as soon as class ended, and right before lacrosse practice, see how important that fact is, please,” everybody laughed, while Coach Finstock nodded seriously, “he cleared everything with her. Scott wanted to be her boyfriend. Kira, obviously, said yes.

“So here we are. Exactly six years after that talk. I’m serious, today is their first kiss anniversary because they’re horribly adorable and cute like that.” People awed and cooed. Scott and Kira shared a loving look, he kissed her hand. “They’re terribly awesome too. Kira lifts Scott up when he feels like there’s no more hope in the world, while Scott pulls Kira back from the darkness lurking in corners. They keep each other steady, sane, anchored and floating by grabbing tight to each other. When they struggle, they fight for each other. They fit and fill perfectly each other’s voids with love. And that’s the beauty of them.

“To Scott and Kira. I know you’ll be happily ever after.”

The glasses were raised and drunk. Scott and Kira engulfed Stiles in a hug, followed closely by the pack.

They all went back to their table. It was time for Scott and Kira to receive other packs’, and people’s in general, congratulations. Then came the food. A whole lot of delicious plates tasted during months. As Stiles could and would eat anything, she had been banned from that process, adding too that she wasn’t in the county. Each plate created small moans of contentedness from her.

“Should we leave you alone with the food, Stiles?” mocked Isaac.

“Oh, shut up, cherubic wolf, or I’ll steal yours. This is amazing!”

Lydia flipped her hair while Parrish grinned proudly. Derek chuckled and Malia hummed her agreement. Mason and Cory were in their own little bubble. Liam and Hayden thanked that at least Stiles wasn’t eaten as her usual hyena self. Even after the amazing food, came the impressive cake. Stiles and the pack stood close to Scott and Kira while they cut into it and posed for everyone. Then, finally, Stiles thanked all deities and legends to be able to taste the cake Derek promised she would absolutely love. He had not lied.

If it hadn’t been because the party music came back on, Stiles would have had seconds and thirds. But she had a challenge to see through, and, honestly, Derek always came up first on her list of delicious.

“Come on, Sourwolf,” he raised both eyebrows and sat there slightly frozen. When he was about to appeal his case, Stiles wisely cut him off. “Nothing of that. I said _to dance with me_ , not to save me _one dance_.” She grinned mischievously.

Derek sighed. He knew a defeat when there was one. But even so, Stiles could see the hint of a smile appearing on his gorgeous face. Seeing Derek getting up, the rest of the pack stood as well to the dance floor. It wouldn’t have been fair to the others if she tried to keep Derek to herself, and it would’ve been way too obvious, so she accepted to dance with him next to her while the music was perfect for group dancing.

Soon, their happy faces and merry laughs throughout the dancing brought other guests to the dance floor. When Scott and Kira came to dance with them, their hoots reached even outside the party. They shoved each other to the center of the group to dance a solo, or shoved two people together (couple or not) and laughed while those two goofed in the middle. Stiles danced with everyone, though, somehow, she felt that they weren’t shoving Derek and her together on purpose. With so much solo dancing, they ended up on different sides.

The music changed again. This time some salsa came on. People partnered up. She was about to walk towards Derek when a hand on her arm turned her around. There was a handsome guy smiling.

“Can I have this dance?” he had an accent she couldn’t quite place and a face she’d seen before. Brown hair, gray cool eyes, and a nice figure.

“Um…,” she looked around discreetly while searching her brain. When she couldn’t locate Derek and met Lydia’s raised eyebrow, she agreed. “Why not?”

As she bumped another couple dancing, the guy spoke up again. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

He twirled her with confidence, even when she stepped on him more often than not. “Sorry, I know I’ve seen you somewhere, but I just can’t pinpoint it.”

“It’s okay. I’m the emissary wolf for Satomi’s pack. I wasn’t when you guys saved me a couple years ago.”

“Oh, right. Tim, was it?”

“You do remember.”

She shrugged, gave another twirl and kept up the step count in her head. “I try to keep track of the good saving times.”

They stayed quiet for a couple of beats. The song was about to reach its end. “Listen, I- I was wondering if you were still single…”

Stiles looked at him surprised. Lydia always berated her for not noticing when someone was interested in her. She could perfectly feel her eye roll and exasperation.

“…what do you say?”

Before she could even scramble her brain to form an answer for a proposition she hadn’t exactly listened, a throat clearing itself came up behind her. Both of them turned to see Derek.

“Excuse me for cutting in, but I have a challenge to fulfill,” he shrugged easily. But Stiles was an expert in reading Derek and the tense line of his shoulders.

“Oh, I see,” said Tim. “Forget what I said before, Stiles. I hadn’t known.” Tim gave her hand to Derek. “It is a lovely party, my congratulations to you two.” He bowed and left.

“Well…” Stiles watched Derek follow Tim with his eyes and a frown. “Hey, the challenge’s still on.”

Derek’s came to hers, searching. Yet this time Stiles couldn’t read into them. “Right.”

He pulled her softly to him and got in place for salsa. Stiles smiled at him nervously. “I’m a lousy salsa dancer.”

He smiled and his eyes were a combination of fond and teasing. There was her Derek, all right. “I know. Lucky for you, my grandma taught me its secrets.”

He led expertly and she followed. It amazed her how right they fitted together. He could see from a mile away where she was going to move to and adapted to it. Moreover, she trusted him to take her where it was needed. This salsa dance was a simple example of how they worked on every level, and a beautiful show to those surrounding them; people even gave them room to dance on, stealing for a second the newlywed’s spotlight.

Nonetheless, it was Kira’s and Scott’s show tonight.

The entertainer called over the music for the women to gather. A chair was pulled to the center and Kira stepped on it with Scott’s help. Everyone hooted knowing what was coming next. The throw of the bouquet. Stiles had brief thoughts of running away, but Lydia caught her arm before she even took a step. This was the only event of the day she wasn’t looking forward to.

Worrying her lip, Stiles stood next to Cora and Lydia at the very front, with Hayden and Malia behind her. Kira feinted the first throw, letting Stiles know how fiercely the rest of the women were pushing to get it. Scott whispered something to Kira that made Cora smirk. The next one was the real deal.

Stiles had no intentions of catching it. However, the moment the bouquet left Kira’s hand Malia tickled her. This made her raise both hands. The bouquet landed easily on her left hand. She gulped at the object in her hand. She knew what it meant, everyone knew it. If you managed to get it, you were the next one getting married. Superstition, of course. She was single and stuck there. Yet… Stiles glanced over the women congratulating her and smiling. Derek was laughing at her luck.

Maybe, just maybe, she could make it happen. She bit her lip and looked back to the evil twin grins Scott and Kira sported. Stiles narrowed her eyes. They planned for it to happen. Kira winked and came down the chair with a jump. Stiles’ let herself be hugged by her and Lydia.

“It is all a matter of time,” Kira smiled with all the joy of a bride.

“Or to take matters into your own hands,” Lydia pinched her waist.

“You plotters,” Stiles hissed as the entertainer called again for the bride to sit on the chair and for the men to gather around.

They stood at the edge of the dancefloor to watch this outcome.

Kira blushed while Scott kneeled in front of her and slid up his hands. All the women hooted while the men whistled. Once Scott freed it leaving a cute kiss on her ankle, he stood victoriously and fake-aimed for a couple of guys. Then he threw it when they least expected. Derek jumped away startled just in time for it to hit Isaac directly.

Stiles laughed at his surprised eyes and elbowed Cora. “Looks like you’re walking down the aisle first.” She laughed at her awkward grumbling.

“And now, it is time to put the garnet on the next bride to be!”

Stiles started to push Cora forward, but she shook her head. “He means you, the girl who caught the bouquet.”

“ _What!_ ” Kira came to drag her forward. “You’re joking, right? It’s Isaac!”

The cherubic wolf was shuffling his feet, blushing and looking down. Kira sat her down and stood behind her, her hands on her shoulders so she wouldn’t get up.

“Don’t kick me, please?” He kneeled in front of her.

“Oh god, do we really need to do this? He’s not even gonna marry me!”

“Tradition is tradition,” Kira shrugged.

Before she could even throw Isaac off, he grabbed her right leg, the one that slipped through her dress. With the fastest human-like speed he could manage, he put it on her. It rested right above her knee, where her dress wouldn’t cover it.

“And you can’t take it off until the party is over,” Kira whispered while Isaac stood up once more.

“Oh, come on woman!” She grumbled. At least it sort of matched her outfit with its white tone. She walked back to Lydia and Cora and pointed at both of them with the bouquet. “It should have been one of you two at the very least.”

Stiles walked back to the pack table grumbling nonsense. Her father walked with her. “Should I start calling Isaac my son-in-law or expect somebody more suited to deal with you?”

“ _Daaad_ ,” she whined, “not you too!”

He laughed. Melissa called him over to dance. He looked so happy that it made her smile. Her dad was a dad too for Scott and he was as proud as if he were the real deal. She reached the table and left the bouquet by her glass. With a sigh he let herself fall into her chair.

“Oh, nothing of that,” Derek said lifting her up again by her arm.

“Of what? A sip of Coke? A moment of rest?”

“To hide the thing on your leg,” he pulled her along to the dancefloor, where the pack had resumed their fun.

She squawked. “I have no idea what you’re talking about!” He leveled her an incredulous glance. She bit her lip and her cheeks turned pinkish.

He snorted. “Dance it off.”

The moment their feet touched the dancefloor, the _Cha-cha slide_ came on. And just like that, with Derek on one side moving his tempting hips and Scott on the other goofing off and vibrating with happiness, she got back into the merry party mood.

She completely lost track of time and the dooming sensation of the garnet on her leg. By the time she came back to the necessity of schedules, it was time for Scott and Kira to run off on their honeymoon. Stiles hugged them both strongly.

“Have so much fun, guys! I love you both to the moon and back.”

She stepped away and let other people say their goodbyes. Once the pack couldn’t see their car on the horizon, they went back. People were chatting now; the music had changed into something a little more hushed. Only couples and soon-to-be night stands were dancing. She laughed when she saw Malia with a guy from one of the other packs.

This time around nobody interrupted her rest. Derek even was laughing away with Melissa. Though when she stretched down to massage her ankles, he appeared by her side.

“Tired?”

She smiled. “Yeah, it was fun and all, but this high-heel thing always kills me.”

“We could go,” he shrugged.

She made a quick review of the place. There weren’t much left. Lydia and Parrish had left right after Scott and Kira. Cora and Isaac were dancing lovingly, as well as Mason and Corey, and Liam and Hayden.

“Yeah, let’s go.” Stiles gather her things, the accusing bouquet too, and went to her dad. “I’m leaving now, pops. See you at home, ‘kay? Keep having fun.”

“Will do, kiddo.”

Stiles also gave Melissa a kiss on the cheek. And left with Derek by her side.


	6. Happiness within reach

The moment they stepped outside, Stiles took off the garnet. She sighed relieved, while Derek just shook his head.

“What?” she shoved him or tried to really.

“It is just superstition, you know that.”

“I know,” she grumbled and twisted it. “Still…its connotations right now aren’t very welcoming.”

“Why?” he led them towards the Camaro.

“Well, it’s embarrassing. Of all the women with boyfriends in there, I caught it. The hopelessly single one.” Derek started the car. “ _And_ it was planned. We all know how perfect Kira’s aim is, whether it is a flying knife or a bouquet. It was an intervention.”

“Intervention for what?”

“For me to get a boyfriend. The bouquet brings the answer to the question ‘who do you wanna marry’, it is supposed to bring forth and move along your boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. And I… I’m not there.”

They fell quiet after that. Stiles could read on Derek’s face he was trying to come with Kira’s and Scott’s reasons behind that and to figure out something to comfort her.

“Whatever,” she said. “It was still a nice wedding and fun party.”

He smiled with his bunny teeth. “Yeah.”

“And Isaac having caught this thingy,” she twirled in her finger, “means it could be you delivering Cora to his arms anytime now.”

He frowned. “You think?”

She snorted. “Of course. He’s completely in love with her.”

Not later enough, Derek parked the car behind Roscoe. Stiles sighed, but as she was about to open the door and say goodbye, Derek stopped her with a hand on her arm. She would have been nervous and her heart jumping all around if it weren’t for his eyes searching the woods closely. Something or someone was out there, close enough to them to put him on alert.

He got out first, circled the car and came to open her door. She took the offered hand and let him pull her out. He didn’t let go of her even as they walked towards her house.

He frowned around them, then stared at her. “Walk with me.”

To everybody else, it might have looked like the continuation of a fancy date, but Stiles heard what he wasn’t saying. He couldn’t leave her alone in her house, unprotected. Though she was perfectly capable of handling herself, Derek wasn’t asking her to come along so he could protect her. No. He was asking her aid to confront the threat.

She nodded.

They surrounded her house, following its lateral path towards the woods. Once they reached the border and were out of spying eyes, Derek crouched and Stiles jumped onto his back. It was difficult to run around in the woods at night, even more so in high heels and a fancy dress.

Stiles held on to his shoulders, purse tight in her hand and the bouquet and garnet forgotten on the ground. His hands were a warm security under her legs. He started running faster than her human speed, but not at his maximum werewolf speed. Several trees past her house he stopped and let her down.

“They’re close.”

“Let’s climb and watch.”

Derek went up first. It was easier to lift her up than help her up, given the dress situation. However, as he settled on a branch and reached down, they appeared. Stiles shooed his hand and reclined herself against the tree with her arms crossed over her chest. They were three men with hunting gear. By the time, supernatural hunters. No regular humans hunted at night. She felt relieved that at least Derek was hiding.

“My, fancy meeting you here on a lovely night,” she said. She could sense Derek’s ironic eye roll.

“Lovely, indeed, sweetheart.”

Stiles stood straighter. She knew that voice.

“James?”

“Ah, you remember me. Good. This will make it easier,” he smiled a sweet smile that carried hell with it.

“What are you doing here? I thought you’d never wanted to be in contact ever again after your daughter’s…situation.”

“Yes, yes. I didn’t want anything to do with… creatures.”

He took a step closer, his goons readied their guns. Stiles dropped her arms. This wasn’t going well. Hunters didn’t aim at her unless she was next to one of her werewolves, and Derek was well-hidden. They hadn’t even looked up to him. No. Something was wrong.

“But then I started thinking, you know. Wanted a better explanation than ‘she was far the point of saving’ you gave me.”

Stiles remembered well what happened. She had only told Lydia and Derek. It had freaked her out. Danielle, a girl in one of her classes, had a little magic in her; several humans do, they just never develop it. But hers started growing at an alarming rate and not in the right way. Worst of all, its nature changed into something twisted. Stiles had no other choice than to put her down. Unfortunately, it happened right in front of the girl’s father, a father who she was about to eat then and Stiles chose to save.

With his next step, Stiles felt the same kind of wrong energy. She tried to keep the distance between them, but she was already against the tree.

“I read her diary and scattered notes.” He raised his fist and accumulated power. It made her tremble with its coldness and an overall feeling of wrong and unnatural. Stronger than it had been with his daughter. “She was not _lost_!”

Derek jumped down in front of her. The other two reacted immediately and shot several times. He could have easily avoided the bullets, but it meant leaving her exposed to the danger. He took them straight on and fell to his knees.

“Derek!”

“Danielle could have _lived_!”

Stiles dodged the ray of dark energy, leading it away from Derek. She could see dark veins peaking from under Derek’s collar. She cursed. Their eyes met. Wolfsbane bullets. _Of course_. Another dark ray missed her.

She focused on James, the greatest danger. “It was unnatural what she did, what you’ve done,” she scowled.

“And these other things aren’t?! What about the way this world works?! You _killed_ my little girl, and the police does _nothing_.”

She tsked. “The police would have been killed by her hand. And I’m sure some did by yours.” Her eyes narrowed. She could see him tainted, his energy had mutated into something terrible. Derek groaned in pain as he tried to rise and fight. She had to end this fast. “But no more.”

Stiles threw her stash of mountain ash, containing his area of movement, then she buried her hands in the soil underneath her. It was easy to call forth the Nemeton’s strength and aid.

The hunters held on for dear life to a tree as the air turned violent. A well-located branch twisted around her and Derek’s body kept them from floating away, still, some small twigs cut her arms. Her hair came loose as her magic concentrated. She ignored the pain in order to shape the wind around James into a circle, reducing it inch by inch. It kept oxygen from coming in and filled it with carbon dioxide from his angry yells.

Slowly, he poisoned himself to death, or at least to lose consciousness. Stiles wasn’t taking any chances. She urged the air to circle faster and shortened its size until its velocity disintegrated James’ whole body.

She returned the wind to a smooth breeze and turned to the hunters. They were getting their breath back and finding their ground. She wasn’t going to let them leave. They shot Derek. With a snap of her hand, branches and roots came to live to imprison them. Stiles walked there and ignore them. They had dropped their guns. She grabbed the bullets and rushed back to Derek, almost falling to the ground because of her heels.

He was lying on the floor sweating and his eyes were glazed. Stiles worried her lip and tore his nice shirt open. It looked bad, pale and sickly.

“Stay with me, please. You can’t die on me, Derek. Not now, not _ever_. Do you hear me?” She was struggling to open the bullet. He started panting. “Come on, come on. Open, damn it!”

A little magical outburst did the trick. Derek’s breath became shallow. Stiles let the wolfsbane fall on her palm.

“Hold on, Derek. Hold on.” She set it on fire and spread it all over the six bullet entries. He twisted and hissed. Stiles kept his arms down, claws away from her. Then he stopped. Completely. She couldn’t even feel him breathing.

“No, no. Come on, Derek! You can’t just die, okay?! I- It’s you! I wanna marry you! Have your baby wolves, fight over silly things, adopt a dog or two cats. Whichever you choose and makes you smile with your bunny teeth. Just- breathe, please!” He didn’t stir, but she thought she felt his heartbeat under her hands. She put two fingers on his neck and checked his pulse. Faint but there. “Do not make me punch you, Hale! I’ll break my hand if needed, but you- will- wake- up!”

She brought her fist down with her eyes closed. This would hurt like a motherfucker, again. Derek stopped her. She opened her eyes with a gasp and made space as he sat up with care. Once settled, Stiles fell on him with a hug.

“Oh god! Why do you always do that? Jump in front of bullets when it was _not_ necessary and then take forever coming out of it!” She grabbed his face and checked his eyes, then looked down to see the wounds already closed.

He touched a scratch on her arm from some branch coming loose with her magic. “You okay?”

“Would be better without the heart attack you just gave me!”

He looked past her to the struggling hunters and frowned. “Weren’t there three?”

“I disintegrated the third.” She looked back as well, then stood up. “I’m calling Chris and my dad. Those two should not see the light of freedom ever again. Aiding a psycho with supernatural means…not good,” she grumbled and dialed.

In few words, she explained what happened to both adults. Warning not to say anything to Scott. She’d deal with that when they came back from their honeymoon. Then she gave the phone to Derek for their exact location, who was now standing.

When he hung up, she pushed her cell into her purse flustered. Her heartbeat was all over the place. It was a combination of adrenaline and embarrassment. The former was the fight and her magic use. The latter, what she said to Derek’s unconscious body. She dreaded if he heard her. Some coma patients do, and Derek was in a better state than that. But he wasn’t saying anything, only watching her. Which amped up her nerves and rattled her.

“Lydia is going to kill us,” he said.

“Why?”

She stood next to him but kept toying with her purse and looking out towards the hunters. Apparently, she had strapped them up too hard and knocked them out, but they were coming out of it. She set a vine on their mouths to keep them from talking.

“My shirt, your dress… they’re ruined.”

Stiles looked down. There were some tears, yes, and one of her shoulder sleeves was completely broken. The state of his shirt was definitely unsalvageable.

“Well, she can always take us shopping. She likes doing that.”

He hummed. Stiles looked up and met his eyes fixed on her. She blushed and looked away. He had an intense gaze she hadn’t seen before. Maybe he did hear her. She bit her lip and twisted her purse. If he did, why wasn’t he saying anything? No, wait, it was better they both ignored it forever.

The woods were filled with a breeze and numbed moans from the hunters, yet she felt the quiet closing in on her. Still, she couldn’t make herself break it. His arm brushed hers with every breath they took. Whenever he moved his leg, it touched hers. And all the while his eyes were on her like a scorching mark. She was so hyperaware of Derek that she jumped when her dad and Chris showed.

“A little warning, man,” she tried to push him but he wouldn’t budge. Instead, he pushed her and made her stumble, but didn’t let her fall by simply grabbing her wrist with delicacy.

She looked up to say something sarcastic, but the deep glint in his eyes subdued her to more silence. Stiles blushed some more. There was something heated and soft in them that made her heart flutter.

“Release them, kiddo.”

Derek let her go. She walked closer to them and steadied both her breathing and jittery energy. With a swift move, she set them free only to be cuffed by her dad and Chris. Stiles felt a little dizzy then. Derek’s reassuring hot hand on her back prevented her from swaying to the ground.

“Will you take her home, Derek? We’ll bring these guys in.” Chris was already reporting to the hunter’s network.

“I’m okay. I just need a moment,” she muttered. “I guess it takes a lot of magic to disintegrate a person via wind.”

“Will do, Noah.” Both men ignored her. Derek guided her back to their tree and gave her a few seconds to gather herself. But he also decided to break their silence then.

“Did you mean it?”

Stile faked obliviousness. “About you risking yourself being a stupid thing? Yeah. About the punch I was gonna give you if you didn’t open your eyes? Fuck yes. I would have even called back your damned ghost just to yell at you.”

“About you wanting to marry me.” Derek had become an expert in traveling through Stiles’ ramblings, unsaid things and misleading words.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She knew it was pointless lying to a werewolf, much less to Derek’s face, who knew all her tells. She felt the blip and winced. Stiles let her head drop and cleaned dirt from her thigh.

Derek came closer. His shoes came into view. They were almost touching hers. He raised her head with a finger under her chin. Stiles gulped. Her eyes were vulnerable, wide open in a combination of fear and expectancy. He searched in there, scrutinizing her very soul’s feelings, how deep her love for him went. And smiled. Stiles’ breath caught in her throat. He put a strip of her hair behind her ear, caressed her neck with his other hand. She shivered.

“We should probably date before getting married, though.”

Stiles sniffed and laughed. Her hands came up to his jacket, holding on to them as to prove this was real. This was happening. Her magic tingled in resonance with the giddy feeling growing inside her. Derek pushed his forehead against hers, nuzzling her nose with his. She closed her eyes. The air felt electrified with possibilities.

“I need an answer, Stiles.”

“You already know it, Sourwolf.”

His body settled against hers, guarding her against the world. “Still…” his lips brushed hers.

“You just want me to say it, don’t you, asshole?”

The hand on her hair traveled to her waist, pulling her toward him. Her hands moved up to his shoulders and neck. He moved his grinning lips to her jaw, pushing her head slightly back, just a mere touch. She licked her lips. The night seemed warmer than earlier, or maybe it was just Derek close to her and her increasing arousal. He hadn’t even truly touched her or kissed her.

“You’re the only person I cannot live without,” she whispered into the wind. “I trust you with my father’s life and my own. I want to build a forever after with you. I love you, Derek Hale.”

“Good. I wasn’t planning on anything less than forever. I’m never letting you go. I love you too much for that, Mieczyslaw Stilinski, my Stiles.”

She gasped and opened her eyes. “How did you-”

He shushed her with a kiss. It started sweet and soft, but soon Stiles pushed herself into him and made it urgent, hungry with desire.

A throat clearing made them jump and separate their lips, though Derek didn’t move an inch further. Her dad was looking at them with hands on his hips and a raised eyebrow. Stiles didn’t feel capable of words. Derek was breathing in her scent on her neck, therefore he was too out for socialization.

“I came back to remind you both to go tomorrow to the station and give your statements. But finally, I see, kiddo, that you’ll no longer be under my care entirely.” He pointed at both of them. “I still expect daily check-ins, spontaneous breakfasts, and twice-a-week dinners. I’ll help you pack tomorrow.” He turned around and left.

 “Did- did he just kick me out?” Derek shook with laughter. Stiles blushed embarrassed. “Don’t laugh, dude!”

He scowled at her. “Don’t call me dude.” Then he kissed her again, less passionate and way shorter. She whined. He chuckled and Eskimo kissed her.

She bit her lip and looked at him. “So, how do you feel about skipping dating and going straight to moving in together?”

“Like it couldn’t be sooner.”

“Good,” she grinned like a madman. “Because I was planning on that since I decided to write my thesis here.”

“I know,” he smiled with his bunny teeth. The smile that blinded the sun. It made Stiles renew her promise of putting it on his face every single day.


End file.
